What are accounting ethics? The answer to this question may be as simple as an accountant that complies with all the relevant rules and regulations. Or it may be more complex detailing the way in which a corporation represents itself to the world
In August 2001, the American Accounting Association did an experiment to map ethical development and unethical behavior. The experiment dealt with numerous students trying to purchase and sale cards. One group of students are sellers while the other group are the buyers. The sellers were given four cards either black or red, where the black cards are a dollar and red cards five dollars. Sellers would then try and sale the card at a higher value in hopes of reaching a certain goal given to them by the instructor. The reason the seller must try and beat this goal is in order to obtain twenty dollars. The buyers were selected to either be high or low quality buyers. Buyers are also able to earn money by acquiring a sufficient number of cards. Finally the subjects switched roles and repeated the same process.
According to Kohlberg’s theory, moral judgment determines moral action simply states, individuals who have a higher level of ethical development should behave in an ethical manner. The experiment proves otherwise, it focuses on people who are closer to the middle of society are more likely to make the most ethical decision. By denouncing Kohlberg’s theory and supporting Ponemon’s experiment it still leaves the question, what is ethics?
Ethics is a complicated field that cannot be defined with a single definition. This area addresses numerous issues, problems, and dilemmas within the accounting field. And it does this through numerous perspectives and methods. How to behave toward oneself and toward other individuals is a matter of making choices: whether to be friendly or unfriendly; whether to tell the truth or lie; whether to be generous or greedy. These and all other questions ab...